Geoff Calkins: Grizzlies coaching hire more important than ever

Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Joerger talks to an official after a call went against the Grizzlies during overtime in Game 4 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder Saturday, April 26, 2014, in Memphis, Tenn. Oklahoma City won 92-89. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Would hiring Jeff Van Gundy make you feel better about things?

How about George Karl? Would a presser with Karl put your mind at ease?

How about that deal with the Chicago Bulls, the one that Bill Simmons keeps talking about? He has the Grizzlies trading for Tom Thibodeau. Would that restore your faith in the local basketball franchise?

Maybe the Grizzlies will try to hire Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry, if the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t get him first. Does that do anything for you?

How about Mark Jackson? How about old friend Lionel Hollins? Who would make this ridiculousness go away?

After a week unlike any other in Memphis Grizzlies history, is there any coaching candidate out there who could restore credibility to a franchise that has none of its own left?

That’s not an exaggeration, either. Not given what has happened in the last 12 months. First, the Grizzlies sent Hollins packing. Even though he had taken the franchise to places it had never been before.

Strange? Sure. But the Grizzlies had a new owner in Robert Pera. New owners often want their own guy to run the show. So the Grizzlies went out and hired Dave Joerger, the assistant, in the interest of (try not to laugh at this one) continuity.

“We are happy the Joerger family will continue to call Memphis home for years to come,” said Griz CEO Jason Levien.

Or at least, months.

Now Joerger is in Minnesota. Fleeing the tumult that the Grizzlies have become. He should be named the new coach of the Timberwolves any minute now.

Meanwhile, if you Google stories about the Grizzlies, you’ll find phrases like “roiling chaos” and “unconscionable chaos” and “turmoil” and “pound-foolish billionaire.”

The stories aren’t out-of-line, either. What kind of organization chases off 50-win coaches in consecutive years? And what kind of organization doesn’t offer anything by way of explanation in the wake of the bloodletting, or any vision of what is to come next?

The Facebook page for Pera’s Ubiquiti Networks says the company designs and manufactures “disruptive technology.” After watching the way Pera runs his basketball team, I can vouch for the disruptive part.

Which brings us to the next move, the coaching hire, and one can just imagine what that job-posting will look like.

“WANTED: Experienced head coach for team in one of the smallest markets in the league, with no permanent general manager and an owner who aspires to beat his own players at one-on-on. Old-school coach didn’t work out. New-school coach didn’t work out. Can’t object when owner tells him whom to play, and must win 50 games just to keep up with his two predecessors, who were each chased away as soon as the season was done.”

Does Simmons really think Thibodeau would want that job? As opposed to, say, coaching Derrick Rose? If so, why exactly? But by all means, if Pera can pull off that kind of deal, he should do it. Because only a slam-dunk hire can salvage this mess.

Indeed, any new coach, even one with a pedigree, is going to have a big job in front of him. Fans will be skeptical. Players will be skeptical. They will all remember the last coach who was going to be in Memphis “for years to come.”

It was hard enough to learn to trust Joerger, after the Hollins departure. That just started to happen by the end of the year. And now that Joerger is going the way of Hollins, the process will have to start all over again.

This isn’t just some touchy-feely enterprise, either. It could have an impact on the trajectory of the franchise for years to come. To take just one example, if the new guy can’t get Marc Gasol to buy in, Gasol will be gone as a free agent by the end of next year.

So that’s what’s at stake. Better pick the right guy. And he better come with loads of credibility, because the Grizzlies are fresh out.